This invention relates to a linear actuator for carrying read/write heads into engagement with a recording medium and more particularly, to a linear actuator with flexures mounting a subcarriage to a carriage.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,740,851--Jones, et al and 4,663,677--Griffith, et al show removable media magnetic disk drives of the type made by the assignee of the present invention. A cartridge having a flexible recording medium is inserted into the disk drive. A motor rotates the disk which is engaged by magnetic read/write heads.
Rotary and linear actuators have been used to carry the magnetic heads into engagement with the disk. Precise positioning of the heads on a disk drive generally demands that external forces on the actuator be kept to a minimum. This typically prohibits the use of plain journal bearings (bushings) because of the frictional forces created during sliding.
Linear actuators have been used for magnetic disk drives, CD players, and optical recording drives. These actuators typically use a voice coil motor to move the carriage of the actuator. Existing products have dealt with the friction problem by using a costly two stage (two actuator) servo system.
It is an object of the present invention to allow both coarse and fine servo positioning to be achieved with one actuator.